The Great Simplification
Systems-level conversations about energy, ecology, economics and the constraints shaping civilization's future.
- Host
- Nate Hagens
- Published by
- The Great Simplification
- Topic
- Policy, Governance & Systems Change
- Format
- Interview
- Orientation
- Systems Change
- Themes
- Resilience, Systems Thinking
- Made for
- Professional / Practitioner, General Public, Corporate Leader
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Latest episodes
Newest first
- Open episode
21 Oct 2026 · 85 min
Earth's Oldest Teachers: How to Live Well on Earth with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Many of us question the core principles of individualism, competition, and transaction our current civilization is founded on. But with an entire culture steeped in these ideals, we don't know where to look for a different way forward. Thankfully, against all odds, there are pockets of cultures who have preserved their knowledge and are able to share both what they know and who their greatest teachers are. In this episode, Nate is joined by Robin Wall Kimmerer to explore what we can learn from some of Earth's oldest and smallest beings: plants. Robin weaves together her experience as a botanis
- Open episode
16 Oct 2026 · 30 min
7 Rungs of a Runaway System: How Civilization Descended Into Crisis | Frankly 162
In this week's Frankly Nate unfurls a metaphorical "ladder" that traces the systems-oriented forces shaping the economic Superorganism. He outlines seven rungs that trickle down to affect the behaviors and events we witness in our daily lives, as well as reinforce humanity's dependence on energy and material growth. These rungs – such as worldview, status symbols, and incentives – help to illustrate that destructive outcomes need not emerge from malicious intent. They can arise from ordinary people responding rationally to the pressures of a system that produces globally irrational results. Na
- Open episode
14 Oct 2026 · 89 min
Optionality Collapse: We're Investing in a Future That Won't Exist with Indy Johar
Traditional financial management tells us that, if we invest right, we'll be able to retire and sink into a future of comfort and stability – and even pass on your wealth to your children and grandchildren. But this vision is built on an anomalous period of stability in which climate, energy resources, and labor markets were all predictable. As ecological breakdown, resource conflict, and AI-driven labor disruption begin to feed into one another, that predictability is slipping away. How can we better position hundreds of trillions of dollars in claims on the future to withstand uncertainty in